Ford, like many traditional automakers, has been playing catch-up in the autonomous vehicle race
after Google’s pioneering of the space and Tesla’s aggressive roll-out
of its Advanced Driver Assist software. Where companies like Volvo are
helping their customers stick their toes in the self-driving waters with systems that can take over driving on highways, Ford has decided it’s going to skip partial autonomy and go straight to the Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) Level Four autonomy (PDF),
or “High Automation,” where a driver does not need to intervene. Ford
doesn’t intend to sell these cars to retail customers right away;
instead it hopes to find customers in ride-hailing companies.

Ford says its next-generation autonomous test
cars, all modified Ford Fusion Hybrids, will have two powerful lidar
(light detection and ranging) sensors that “see” up to two football
fields in any direction (this is down from four or five weaker lidar sensors in previous versions of Ford's prototype cars).
The Fusion Hybrids will also have three cameras on the roof of the car,
a camera mounted under the windshield, and short- and long-range radar
sensors to detect objects in inclement weather.

Building Ford’s Next-Generation Autonomous Development Vehicle.

Ford says this next generation of test cars
has improved software, along with computing power that will “generate 1
terabyte of data an hour.” The extra computing power also requires the
cars to draw extra power from both their gas engines and their
high-voltage battery packs, with the help of two independent power
converters.

Currently the Fusion Hybrids are capable of
some pretty extraordinary things—like interpreting hand signals from
police officers directing traffic—but they still have a long way to come
to be fully autonomous. Ford specifically mentioned that it’s working
on helping the car respond to ride-hailing-specific tasks, like figuring
out what to do if a passenger has left items in the car or shutting a
door that a passenger failed to shut. And it’s got to redesign the
vehicle before it’s market-ready, because the finished product won’t
have a steering wheel or pedals.

But those advancements will come at a later
date, as Ford’s fleet logs more and more miles on public roads in
Michigan, California, and Arizona in 2017.